Cakehole Presley

Cardiff's become a massive student town, and God bless all those eagerly optimistic little faces. Although the life blood of Cardiff, they don't stick around for long and most of them don't leave the beaten track of the more typical nightspots. As a result great things go unnoticed by the mainstream. Some of us who are more embedded and familiar with Cardiff have ended up in some very unusal places indeed. Gigs held in barns, warehouses and minefields. Places where a drunk man might throw his dog at you. It was somewhere similar that this MMP reporter first heard legendary acoustic trio Doofer play. Three weathered dudes you'd probably seen busking earlier that day singing about stuff that you could truly, truly empathise with. Like fag machines ripping you off. They were magnificient. The roughest of shiny diamonds.

Skip forward to 2008 and Doofer's Chris Ridgeway and Mark Humpries merged with Alca Jones and Al McLean of Captain Paranoid. Good things are expected. What arrives is an unknown brand of sincere, pain-infused, shuffle dirt-pop. Cakehole Presley was born.

The themes within the songs are as clear as a bell and gut-wrencingly honest. That's the charm really. There's no pretence with Cakehole Presley. Got To Know Your Name will appeal to anyone prone to falling in love rapidly. Borrowed Time seems to be distilled from the thousand yard stare of a pub veteran while Grab A Rock says 'Hey! Everything's fucked but it's still beautiful!'

Their self titled EP combined Chris and Mark's time-honed voices with an electric sheen and rock solid platform. The vocals always shine through, delivered with a crisp hoarseness that more than hints at a life well lived.. Al Mclean's electric guitar weaves its way mischievously around and it's rare to find acoustic based songs so well complimented with the oomph of bass and drums. It's a big sound but they're a band who give each other the space to play and be heard.

The MMP can't write about Cakehole without mentioning their fans. Quite simply they will out dance and drink you. Just take photographs and don't try and compete with them. They're a friendly bunch and soon enough you'll be one of them, drinking and dancing like a pro.

Bands like Cakehole Presley are part of the reason The Miniature Music Press was born. They'll never get the time of day from image obsessed cool junkies but they're a feast for live music fans. Now gracing much larger venues like the Globe, rumours of a tour and with a new e.p on it's way 2010 is looking very tasty indeed.



Words: Rowan Ligget
- Miniature Music Press

A seemingly accidental amalgam of different bands and happy accidents seemed to have lead to Cakehole Presley moving from mere side project to a full blown band with a ridiculously large number of catchy memorable songs. One moment sounding like a 1940s music hall act with ‘Grab a Rock’ the next pulling at the heart strings with ‘Sweet Dreams’. A song that will move you to tears with its bittersweet, regretful lyric. Chris and Mark lead proceedings, but Cakehole Presley are a solid band and put on a blinder of a show that went down really well on this hot summer’s night at the Globe. If they don’t achieve at least the modicum of success they have worked so hard for over several decades it will be something of a tragedy. - Newsound

Cakehole Presley EP
Ju-Ju's Voodoo Shack Records:

The debut EP from Cardiff's loveable folk artists

Cakehole Presley's debut consists of six tracks that soothingly introduce us to their enchanting dream-like folk melodies, that follow the central themes of peace and love throughout.

On the first track Clouds Skipin, Chris Reidgeway sings about wanting to escape from the "grime of the city" to a far away "dreamland".

Gotta No Your Name and Borrowed Time exemplify Cakehole Presley's delightful harmonica sound that fits so wonderfully within this group.

The EP concludes with the tranquil sounds of Small Ideas, leaving the listener peacefully daydreaming.

This is truly an impressive and highly enjoyable debut, marking Cakehole Presley as ones to watch in the folk scene.

Words: Saima Razzaq. - BBC Wales Review

As drummer Alka handed over the CD he said "I know it aint your cup of tea, but see what you think." He is right; this album ticks none of the boxes of the sort of stuff that we usually listen to, except one. That one box is talent. The tick in that talent box is so big and bold it spills out and makes the other boxes irrelevant; damn this is a good disc! This comes as a shock, the only other stuff we have in our collection that comes even close to this sort of 'pop' would be Prefab Sprout, Lloyd Cole or maybe the Pale Fountains. This is grown up pop music of the highest order; this is how the Beatles might have turned out if they had matured without going down the 'Sgt Pepper' route (and getting shot). Sharp lyrics, beautiful melodies, warm vibes.. perfect pop basically!

It is all fairly laid back stuff and none of the more rockin' tunes from the live set find their way onto this disc. Love features heavily throughout, "I don't need to be told what to do, in return I will not tell you, if any one expects perfection, well poor you, you've got a long wait if you do" Skipin Clouds tells us… Amen to that my son! 'Gotta Know Your Name' tells of wanting to get to know a beautiful stranger; 'Me and You' is a tale of a doomed relationship and hints at the mellowness of Pink Floyd's 'Pigs On The Wing'. One of the best CDs we have come across for a very long time, but we cannot really explain why and have no idea where to file it... somewhere we can put our hands on it easily probably! Peppermint Iguana.com - Peppermint Iguana

There's a rueful sorrow that runs throughout Cakehole Presley's self-titled EP that is matched only by the sense of hope against hope. It's anachronistic and contradictory and flawed and ultimately beautiful, just like life. This innocent EP sits at the junction where music becomes art becomes life becomes music once again, all in twenty-six minutes. After hearing the debut EP I find myself incredibly impatient to hear what comes next. You will be too.
Wildy's World.') - Wildy's World